The Neander pain threshold

I'm told that old farts don't handle pain so well. Neanders in this respect aged faster (eight years) than Africans.

It suggests the Neanders were more cautious... perforce.

The ubiquitous Pääbo finds the same Neander gene in "central and south America" and also Europe. Not in Parias or Beringia between them. That suggests it maintained itself in the older Siberia, among the RQ class of men. So Mal'ta Boy, again. The African variant became an East Asian variant; I take it that the Na-Dene who came to North America, later on, spread that around. I am unsure if this got as far as the Uto-Aztecan peoples.

It seems clear why the African-to-Asian variant should do well, in a hunter/warrior society. To me less clear is why the Neander gene did not undergo selection in the great Eurasian steppes.